A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activist on Thursday appealed to Punjab Minister and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu to secure the release of a Mumbai techie who is serving a jail sentence in Pakistan and is slated be released next month.

BJP activist Krishna Hegde said, “a humble request to speak to Prime Minister Imran Khan to expedite release of Hamid Ansari, who is serving term in a Pakistan jail.

27-year-old Hamid Nehal Ansari was accused of entering Pakistan illegally from Afghanistan in November 2012.

Ansari had allegedly entered Pakistan with a fake identity card given by a friend from Karak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Pakistani intelligence nabbed him from a hotel, a few days later. In December 2015, a military court found him guilty of espionage and anti-national activities.

However, Ansari refuted the charges and even challenged his conviction in the Peshawar High Court where the Pakistan government said he would be deported as soon as his jail sentence ended.

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